Atelier Cologne Advent Calendar Days 7 and 8: Vanille Insensee and Silver Iris

Disclaimer: I purchased this.

Day 7 of the Atelier advent calendar brings a sample vial of Vanille Insensee, which ranks right up there with Orange Sanguine as one of my favorites of the brand. It's definitely not your typical vanilla fragrance, and I would recommend getting a sample before buying to see how it sits on you.   

I blind bought a gift set of Vanille Insensee from Birchbox almost five years ago, and fortunately have grown to love it (you can read my original review here). I'm only about an inch down on the bottle, but this is one of the Atelier colognes that has both impact and staying power for me, so a few spritz's are plenty. 

This is also one of the few of Atelier's colognes where I like the dry down better than the opening notes. I find it complex and intriguing, to the point where I regularly sniff my wrists to breath it in. It has an incense like quality to it that took me past my initial ambivalence to the opening sharpness of the lime and coriander notes. I find it wears equally well in either hot or cold weather, and I also love how it smells on my clothes.

Source: Atelier Cologne

• Top notes: coriander from Russia, cedrat from Italy, cedar from Mexico
• Middle notes:jasmine from Egypt, Haitian vetiver, oakmoss from Slovenia
• Base notes: vanilla from Madagascar, oakwood from England, amber

Day 8 brings a sample vial of Silver Iris, which I find very different from some of the more citrus top note heavy sister colognes. Tangerine is one of the top notes, but I wouldn't have known that if I had not read the note lists.

• Top notes: tangerine from Italy, pink pepper from China, black current from Burgandy
• Middle notes: violet leaves from Grasse, iris Pallida from Tuscany, mimosa from Grasse
• Base notes: patchouli from Indonesia, white amber, tonka bean from Brazil

Source: Atelier Cologne

Launched in 2013, Silver Iris opens with a scent that my nose identifies as pepper + cardboard. Not exactly promising, but the papery pepper vibe quickly gives way to something more smooth and powdery (reminiscent of lipstick/cosmetics), which I'm guessing are the middle notes of violet leaves combined with the iris Pallida. I saw plenty of reviewers who said they found Silver Iris to be both dry and sweet, but to my nose it registers more on the dry/cool end of the spectrum. I like it enough to finish the sample, but it does not sing to me enough to want to invest in a larger size. Still, it's a nice palette cleanser in the sea of citrus I've been wearing lately :-)